METEORITE ADVENTURES:
NEW ORLEANS

September 2003

On Tuesday, September 23,. 2003
at ~4:00 pm, a large meteorite fell in downtown New Orleans. A single
stone fell through the roof of a house, and destroyed an antique wooden
desk, penetrated the upstairs room floor, then entered the downstairs
bathroom, narrowly missing the toilet. It then punctured a hole through
the bottom floor of the house, entering the ground beneath the home
and then shattering into many pieces. The estimated weight of the stone
(in fragments) is ~20 kilograms.

Amazingly, it seems that no one
saw or heard and sign of this meteorite as it entered the atmosphere,
and the only report of any sound was made by the neighbor, who heard
what she thought was a car accident at ~4:00 pm. She rushed outside
and saw nothing, then forgot about the sound until her neighbor came
home that evening and came over asking her about why his home was severely
damaged. They thought that perhaps an airplane part had fallen off and
hit the house. When he sorted through the debris, he noticed small pieces
of burned stone, and then realized that it must be a meteorite.

I was visiting my friend in Arkansas
when I heard of the fall, my friend and I immediately jumped on a flight
to New Orleans, and made arrangements to see the lucky owner of the
newly destroyed home the next day.

The meteorite is being sent out
for analysis and more data will follow when I get it.
The meteorite appears to be a very fragile chondrite, I saw many small
chondrules, and some metal. My guess is (H5).

Here is a large fragment.

Two smaller fragments.

Roy and myself!

Roy and Gary Loyd.

The house from the street. The meteorite
impact is only visible as the light roof patch in the far left
center of the roof at the end of the house.

Another view of the impact on
the roof. The roof was repaired the next morning, so only the
patch is visible in the center (lighter tiles).